The Story of Ravenpaw
by Kokuryu
Summary: The Clans are settled in their new territories, but what happened to Ravenpaw? What's his story? My first FanFic
1. Chapter 1

**Hi Everyone!**

**This is my first FanFic so I would really love some critisism.**

**Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: Everything is Erin Hunter's**

_Ravenpaw's growled deepened as the unnaturally yellow, two-leg monster loomed closer. It's loud roar shook the earth and Ravenpaw heard two-legs shouting to one another, pointing at him. One of them approached him, and Ravenpaw unsheathed his claws and lashed out at the two-leg's furless paw, making blood stream out. The two-leg withdrew his hand and cried out. Bringing more two-legs running over. _

_"Barley! We have to go _now_!" Ravenpaw called out over his shoulder to the older tom. Barley shook his head and crouched lower in one of the haystacks. _

_Ravenpaw narrowed his eyes in frustration at his companion's stubbornness. His nostrils flared at the foul smoke the monster was breathing._

_"If we don't leave now that two-leg monster will crush us!" Ravenpaw shouted over the roar of the machine._

_Another two-leg made an attempt to grab Ravenpaw, but this time, the black tom flung himself at the two-leg with a yowl. Ears flattened on his head, Ravenpaw raked a wound on the two-leg's ugly face, and then leaped off and ran to the woods._

_"Barley! Let's go!" Ravenpaw pelted away from the commotion and dived into the shadows of the undergrowth nearby. _

_He looked back towards the old barn house and his chest tightened when he saw Barley still there, still nestled in the pile of hay. Why wouldn't he leave? Ravenpaw wondered desperately._

_But now, it was too late._

_He watched the horrible scene unfold: a two-leg climbing into the belly of the monster... the monster coming to life, stalking closer and closer to Ravenpaw's and Barley's home... the monster raising a giant claw and suspend it in mid-air above the barn for a long heartbeat... then came the _crash_, as it slammed down on top of the roof._

_Hay, wood, dust and splinters flew in all directions, hiding Barley from Ravenpaw's sight. The monster lifted the claw up again, and repeatedly rammed into the abandoned two-leg's nest. Ravenpaw tore his gaze away from the destruction of his home. _

_This is what happened to the clans, the thought struck Ravenpaw, and he looked beyond the barn's demolition and to the distance, where the forest had once been. Now, there were rows of thunderpaths and new two-leg nests, full of kittypets, dogs, and two-legs. Strange plants and fences. And Monsters._

_Firestar, he thought, Graystripe. They all left before it was too late._

_Barley, he thought. Why didn't he want to leave?_

_He turned back the two-leg mob. The abandoned two-leg place was gone, and in its place was a pile of debris._

_And Barley._

_The two-legs suddenly put the monster to sleep and left, talking loudly to one another in their language._

_Ravenpaw waited a couple of heartbeats until they gone and out of sight before bounding over to the rubble._

_He cautiously crept up to the ruin, his pale green eyes scanning through the settling dust-and found what he dreaded to find._

_A tuft of black and white fur poked out of a gap between the wreckage. _

_Ravenpaw leapt over and dug as fast as he could to his friend._

_Pulling back the last piece of rubble with his aching paws, the black cat revealed the broken tom. _

_Ravenpaw stepped back and stared in horror._

_Barley's eyes were closed. His usually neat fur was shredded and matted with blood. His paw was twisted in a permanent angle. Shallow cuts laced the tom's body, but what worried Ravenpaw the most was the long, bleeding gash across Barley's throat and down his flank._

_Desperately, Ravenpaw struggled to remember what Firestar, when they were both apprentices, had once told him about bleeding._

_Cobwebs to stop bleeding._

_Ravenpaw dashed over to the trees and returned as fast as he could to Barley with his paw swathed in cobwebs. He stretched them out and pressed them against the black and white tom's wound._

_But everything was going wrong! In a couple of heartbeats, the cobwebs were drenched. The overpowering smell of blood was making Ravenpaw sick and dizzy._

_Barley! Please don't let him be dead... Great Starclan... Please don't let him be dead..._

_Ravenpaw swayed on the spot, nearly collapsing._

_Suddenly, to his relief, Barely coughed up blood and gasped for breath, his sides heaving. The old tom muttered something._

_"Barley..." Ravenpaw whispered. He leaned forward to listen to his friend, and heard him say,_

_"Violet..." Barley croaked. "Violet..."_

_Then his eyes glazed over. The tom heaved his final breath, and then went horribly still._

_This time, Ravenpaw knew he was dead._

_Ravenpaw felt as is he had been the one to died. A wave of fire, then ice, washed over him. He stood still, shocked, breathless, for a lifetime. Then he threw back his head and caterwauled his grief._

_Numb, he grabbed Barley's broken body by the scruff and dragged him away from the wreck. He pulled him to the edge of the forest, and dug a hole, deep so that foxes and badgers wouldn't dig it up. As if in a dream, a terrible dream, he gently placed the dead tom in, and buried him._

_Limp with exhaustion, Ravenpaw collapsed onto the ground, not even attempting to clean his paws from the dried blood and dirt._

_Barley, he thought. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep._

_Memories flashed through his mind: Exploring camp for the first time as kits, with his brother, Dustpelt, Dustkit. Becoming an apprentice to that dark, evil tabby... Watching Tigerclaw murder Redtail, running back, telling the clan Redtail was dead... Meeting Firepaw in the medicine den, with his hurt shoulder... The trip to the Moonstone, meeting Barley, the rat attack... Shadowclan attacking, stealing the kits... Running away to the abandoned two-leg place... Saving Cloudtail... Saying good-bye to the clans without Graystripe... Barley... Two-legs coming... Barley... Monsters destroying the abandoned two-leg nest..._

_Barley..._

_Ravenpaw drifted off to sleep._


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry that nothing much happens in this chapter... I'll try to make them longer too...**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything. It's ALL Erin Hunter's!**

Ravenpaw stood over Barley's grave with his head bowed and tail drooping, one last time.

_May Starclan go with you_ he thought. _May you have good hunting._

_Why did you have to leave?_

The sun was starting to rise, giving light to the budding flowers of New-leaf and warming Ravenpaw's black pelt. A gentle breeze rippled the lush grass carpeting the small forest and rustling the fresh green leaves. Dark shadows dappled the earth, shifting with the leaves. Two golden butterflies danced through the air and delicate clouds streaked through the painted, sunrise sky. Birds chirped and sang above, on the elegant branches of the trees.

Ravenpaw closed his eyes and raised his muzzle to the quiet wind, inhaling the sweet morning scent. _How could it still be so beautiful after Barley's death?_

The black tom sighed. He sat back on his haunches resignedly and began to wash. He lasped his pink tongue over his paws, which were caked with dried blood and mud. He wrinkled his nose at the bitter-metallic taste as he cleaned between his claws. Then, Ravenpaw bent his head and groomed his chest-fur with long strokes, calming his nerves slightly. He remembered Barley's dying words. Violet. Who was Violet? His mate?

Somehow, Ravenpaw doubted it. If Barley did have a mate, he would most likely have been with her, instead of living in the barn with Ravenpaw. A friend?

Ravenpaw shook his head and yawned. He was light-headed with weariness, mourning,... and hunger. He hadn't eaten since right before sun-high yesterday. His stomach growled.

A sudden fluttering sound behind him caught Ravenpaw's attention. His ears swiveled around to the slight noise that he identified as prey. He silently, slowly turned and saw a small gray bird with a red chest perched on the low branch of a berrybush, pecking at the gray-black fruit. A robin.

Instinctively, he lowered himself into a hunter's crouch, careful to make sure that he was downwind. He put his weight on his haunches and pulled himself closer to his prey, one light paw at a time. The young grass masked his paw steps, but his white tail tip brushed against an unseen twig. The bird paused.

Ravenpaw crouched deep into the grass and tried to blend in with the shadows, and the bird went back to its busy pecking. The black cat tightened his haunches, calculated the distance between him and the bird in a heartbeat, and then pounced towards his prey. The robin sensed danger and prepared to take off, but too late. Ravenpaw was already on top of it.

_Fresh-kill finally. Mice are much easier than birds_, the tom thought as lifted his paws from the broken body. An image of Barley's death flashed through his mind, making Ravenpaw momentarily lose his appetite. _Stop thinking about Barley_, he told himself. He sighed and picked up the bird. He trotted back to the edge of the small forest and finished the piece of fresh-kill in a few gulps.

Ravenpaw sat up and looked towards Highstones, or what _was_Highstones. Now is was a pile of overturned boulders pushed off to one side so that the twolegs had a clearing build more nests. Beyond Highstones there were even _more _twoleg nests. Ravenpaw knew that in _that _twoleg area, Bloodclan used to dwell there. He remembered the times when he had just arrived at the barn, hiding from Tigerclaw. He was a scrawny cat when he had met Barley, who welcomed him in to stay with him. Ravenpaw remembered lying on the sweet smelling hay, with a plump mouse between his paws, when Barley told him stories of his younger days. How he used to be in Bloodclan, and how he ran away, managing to escape with his life.

_Barley... Bloodclan... Twoleg place... Violet... I guess I'll just go to the twoleg place and find Violet, whoever she is. After all, I've nothing left to lose, and I can't stay here anymore _Ravenpaw decided. And _I need an adventure._Ravenpaw stretched, flexing his claws. Then he stood, and padded away from Barley's grave, to the twoleg place.

_See you in Starclan, Barley._

_Goodbye._

* * * * *

The sun was blazing in the bright blue sky.

Ravenpaw jumped down from the rocks that used to make up Highstones. He landed in an open area, once lush and filled with plants, now reduced to rocky soil, dust and crabgrass. He started trotting at a brisk pace, feeling vulnerable in such an open place. He reached a wide thunderpath and waited at the side as two monster flew past him, kicking up gravel and dirt with their paws, and ruffling Ravenpaw's fur with the smoky fumes they blew past him. Ears pricked, he ran across the thunderpath and made it to the other side long before the next monster came.

Ravenpaw knew that twolegs were'nt as mouse-brained as they looked, but even he had to admit that they were going to far, destroying the Clan cats home and territory, and the land beyond. Ravenpaw wondered what happened if the twolegs ran out of things to destroy and use for themselves. Or would they just never run out? Back in the barn, travellers sometimes passed by or stayed for a night or two. Rouges mostly. Some would come from long distances away and tell Ravenpaw and Barley of places they never seen before. Like the sun-drown-place that a few questing warriors were looking for. Or of bare mountains that spat out fire and breathed out smoke.

Ravenpaw never really believed in _those_ mountain stories. The only mountains he saw were the ones covered in snow and ice all year round, to the side of the vast two-leg place. And _they_ certainly didn't spew out fire.

He remembered how Firestar was talking to him, all those moons ago, about searching for a new place to settle for all the clans. Firestar had asked him if he would like to join the clan, an Ravenpaw refused, saying that he enjoyed being independent, and that he had to keep a look-out for Graystripe is he ever returned back to the forest. Then, the flame colored tom had said something briefly about how they might have to cross the mountains. Ravenpaw had stared in shock. How could so many cats survive the harsh landscape of the mountains? But he had wished they four clans the guidance of Starclan, and had watched them depart as kits to elders started their journey to their new home.

"Blaaaahahah!"

Ravenpaw was jolted away from his memory trance and came to a halt. He had reached the twoleg farm.

He saw sheep: bad-smelling, white, cloud like creatures with large hooves and strange, curly fur.

Ravenpaw had once saw sheep and twolegs from a distance. The twoleg had whistled loudly, like a bird, and three dogs had chased the sheep until they were gathered in a group. The twoleg had led the sheep, one at a time, into the barn. And when the sheep came back out, it looked like a whole different animal, no longer like a cloud! Ravenpaw had mentioned this to Barley, who had only shrugged and said that the twoleg had cut off the sheep's fur to make colorful, artificial skin. Ravenpaw had been fascinated.

How could twolegs make fluff into skins? And how could the make the white colorful? Barley didn't know the answers to those questions though, so Ravenpaw could only wonder.

Now, the black tom padded past the herd of sheep, protected by the fence that the twolegs had made. _Probably to keep the dogs from running away. _Ravenpaw guessed. _The sheep look tame enough._

He passed the sheep, and then another fenced in enclosure with giant horses, grazing. He wondered what would happen is one of these beasts stepped on a cat. They could break the cat's neck with their polished hooves.

He continued walking along the side of the fence, now surrounding white animals with black patches, some with odd, pink underbellies. Barley had called them cows. They too, belonged to the twolegs.

Passing them, Ravenpaw couldn't help noticing a young cow nuzzling its mother. _Family_, Ravenpaw thought, almost wistfully. He remembered Robinwing, his mother, grooming him and his brother the day they were being made into apprentices. 'You have to look the best for this occasion.' Robinwing had told them between licks. Duskkit had struggled, but Ravenkit was almost calmed of his jumpy nervousness and excitement. He remembered when Robinwing and his father, Fuzzypelt, had gone to Starclan, and when thought he had no family when he ran away. But Barley had been his family, and before that, Thunderclan. He had never truly been alone.

But now he was.

A distant noise shattered his thoughts. He glanced over his shoulder to see two dogs, a golden and a tan-and-black, approaching him fast with loud, excited barks. Ravenpaw whipped around and raced in a practiced zig zag pattern, the same one he used to throw off dogs back at the barn. But these dogs were fast.

Frantically, the black tom's eyes raked the clearing for a tree to take refuge in, the only one being a skinny birch at the top of an easy-rising hill. Having no other choice, Ravenpaw shifted his direction slightly and began sprinting up the slope.

The sound of the two dogs' paw steps pounding the earth told Ravenpaw that they were closing in the distance between him and them. He dared to turn his head around and his heart leapt to his throat when he saw that they were only a fox-length behind him.

He forced his aching muscles to run faster; he was nearing the top of the hill, and the tree.

_Closer_... _just a little bit further_...

He bounded forward and in a few long strides reached the birch tree. Without hesitation, Ravenpaw latched onto the peeled-bark tree and climbed as high as he could without breaking the thin trunk. He clung to the tree tightly and when he calmed down enough, he looked down.

The two dogs were pacing around the tree, gazing up at Ravenpaw with grey and brown eyes. The tan-and-black dog stared intently at the black cat up in the tree for a moment before backing up a few steps. The dog gave a short bark and its companion too stopped pacing and moved away. As the golden dog sat down to watch, the tan-and-black dog began to charge at the tree. It banged its thickly muscled shoulder against the tree trunk and the birch shook violently, making Ravenpaw's bones rattle.

The tan-and-black dog recovered in an instant and threw itself against the birch again, throwing Ravenpaw off the tree and sending him flying to the ground.

The tom hit the ground painfully hard, the breath knocked out of him. Momentarily dazed, he struggled to stand, only to let out a gasp of pain and fall back to the earth. The golden dog approached him and sniffed Ravenpaw curioursly. To weak to to attack, Ravenpaw only hissed venomously at him and aimed a glancing blow at the dog's muzzle. The dog growled and bared its teeth as blood welled up from its nose. It raised a paw and pummled Ravenpaw's head with a force that made him see stars. Then it pounced on top of Ravenpaw to lean forward and sink its teeth into his flank.

Ravenpaw felt the dog pick him up and shake him harshly; pain seared through his body and not to far away he heard a twoleg whistling and calling.

_Starclan! Can this get any worse? _Ravenpaw wondered faintly as the twoleg appeared in the edge of his vision. Then the dog flung Ravenpaw against the birch.

Ravenpaw fell to the earth. He blinked twice, his vision of the two dogs and the twoleg swimming.

Then he passed out.


End file.
